Necrophagous Fly Assembly: Evaluation of Species Bait Preference in Field Experiments

VILTE, R; GLEISER, R M; BATTÁN HORENSTEIN, M.

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Año: 2020 vol. 57 p. 437 - 442

0022-2585

The assembly of species that colonize animal organic matter, their relative abundance, and dynamics are affectedby the environmental and biogeographical conditions to which these resources are exposed. Baitedtrap studies are essential for research on the diversity, seasonality, distribution and population dynamics ofnecrophagous flies. Decomposing baits provide the necessary stimulus for flies to aggregate on them. Inthis study, three types of bait of animal origin with different organic chemical composition were compared interms of the diversity, richness, abundance, and species composition of saprophagous flies species that wereattracted to them. Bone-meal (BM), cow liver (CL), and rotten chicken viscera (CV) were used as bait to collectflies. In total, 3,387 Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae, and Muscidae adult flies were collected. The most abundantspecies were Lucilia ochricornis (Wiedemann 1830), Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann 1819) (Diptera:Calliphoridae), Peckia (Sarcodexia) lambens (Wiedemann 1830) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), and Ophyra capensis(Wiedemann 1818) (Diptera: Muscidae). The type of bait had significant effects on both the total richness(F2,18 = 57.08; P < 0.0001) and the effective number of species (F2,18 = 12.81; P = 0.0003) per trap. The averagerichness was higher in traps baited with chicken viscera, followed by cow liver and finally by bone-meal. Thecomposition of cow liver and bone meal species constitute subsets of the species collected with chicken viscera,thus using the three baits would not increase the number of species detected. These results indicate thatchicken viscera is the most efficient bait for testing or assessing necrophagous fly diversity.